Replies

A Puerto Rican (or the Cuban Rubio) isn't necessarily the best candidate to fire up Hispanic voters in general. The biggest group is Mexicans, most important to us in the SW states.

Very well put, Impy. Just as I had posted earlier, "Hispanics" (a relatively recently coined term) are not a single ethnic block, but identify much more with their specific country of family origin rather than their native Spanish language. Thus a Puerto Rican candidate would not have specific ethnic appeal to Mexicans, Cubans or Dominicans, etc., etc., despite the models and theories of left-leaning demographic beancounters.

It's somewhat like native English speaking Americans don't generally identify English speakers from other nations - e.g., Great Britain, Australia, Canada - as "one of us."

I found out the other day that apparently Senator Pat Toomney is considered "hispanic" and is a member of the Congressional Hispanic Conference, because he has Portuguese ancestry. This just shows you how silly is it for liberal Democrats to lump all "Hispanics" together and classify them as an oppressed minority group. The GOP isn't much better when it comes to ethnic stereotypes. I get really tired of hearing about how Hispanics are "socially conservative and natural Republicans" when all the ones I know in the Chicago area are out hyping the "gay pride" parade every year (not to mention voting for EVERY pro-abortion Democrat they can find on the ballot, including selecting those candidates in primary elections over pro-life Democrats).

I still say I should get to be "latino" because my grandmother's family was Sicily. :-p The government's racial classifications make no sense.... full blooded Caucasian guy who immigrated to America from the Iberian Peninsula in Europe = "non-white minority". dark skinned Arab guy from a northern African country like Libya = "white". Whatever.

In any case, I agree a mexican-american on the ticket would probably sway alot more hispanic voters than a cuban or puetro rican (seriously, I don't think Mexicans care about a puetro rican on the ticket anymore than Irish-americans are likely to vote for an Italian on the ticket because he's a "fellow Catholic"). However, there's just not alot of good conservative mexican-americans in office that we could put on the ticket.

Since Romney's a former Governor, I think he's far more likely to pick an conservative Senator or Congressman with an anti-Obama record as his running mate, than pick another Governor. Thus Rubio and Cantor are probably being looked at more closely than Martinez or Fortuno (Martinez would be have been preferable if the GOP nominee was Santorum or Gingrich though). Despite being pro-life and cutting government, Fortuno has been cozy with Obama's policies and sucked up to him, making him a terrible choice for running mate. He's on my "unacceptable" list with other names like John Thune, Peter King, Condoleezza Rice, and so on.

I don't see any problem with a Mormon-Catholic ticket and I'm really tired of hearing the media line about "evangelicals" being upset "because they don't consider Mormons to Christians". First off, I hate to break the news to the mainstream media and freeperdom, but Catholics, Orthodox, and "mainline" protestants don't consider Mormons to be Christian, either. Secondly, I don't care whether we have a "Christian" candidate for President as I would sooner vote for a conservative constitutional Hindu before I would vote for a socialist "Christian" who tells everyone he's accepted Jesus Christ as his savior and been born again (can you say Jimmy Carter?). As I've said 1000 times before, Romney's problem is his liberalism, not his religion. The "Mormon" card is just being played the media to make excuses of "right-wing bigotry" if Romney loses, and avoid the fact he's a RINO that the GOP base can't get excited about.

But in any case, I don't think "Evangelicals" will vote for Obama, or even "stay home" in states where they play a big factor. I can't imagine the media reporting "this just in... in a huge upset, it appears Alabama will go to President Obama this evening, as evangelical voters stayed home in massive numbers". In the swing states we NEED to win... Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennslyvania, etc., the "evangelicals" are a non-factor.